Kingdom cut scenes
by Qiang Lei
Summary: Kingdom short stories. Spoilers for current scanlations only (no spoilers from raws / history). If you have any wish for a specific scene, just ask in the reviews.
1. Chapter 1

"I don't wanna."

"Yes, you do."

Shin could cut in two cunning strategists, skilled swordsmen, brutal giants, but he was completely unable to resist Ten when she frowned at him. For some time, he'd wondered if he had a weakness when it came to shrimps with a bird mask. Or maybe it was Ten's special attack: glaring at people until they gave up. She was dragging him to his tent, just when he was going to drink some wine and relax after a hard day's work. In Shin's opinion, it was a captain's duty to be with his men to enjoy a summer's evening, but Ten had other plans in mind.

"Why do I have to do this? Who needs something like that on the battlefield?" he whined while she finally pushed him into the tent.

"Because you're a five-thousand man captain. You're starting to be vaguely important. At some point, you're going to be in trouble if you can't manage at least this much."

"Can't I pay people to do this sort of useless stuff for me?"

"Mouten can do it."

"You don't need to tell me that Mouten's cleverer than I am," Shin protested. "I already know that!"

Ten had a devilish smile.

"Ouhon can do it too."

Suddenly, Shin looked like he'd just swallowed a lemon. Ten could nearly believe that smoke was coming out of his ears. He sat down, his arms crossed.

"Guh! How hard can it be? Come on, Ten. Let's do this!"

He was so easy to manipulate. Ten sat down in front of him and unpacked her writing kit between them. Shin glared at the ink and brush as if he was trying to scare them into surrender.

"Alright! I'll learn how to write in a month!"

She laughed at him.

"Idiot, that's impossible."

"I'll show you! I'll learn it in three weeks!" he retorted.

She sighed, as she unrolled the models for the basic strokes. Making bold claims like that was just like him. But even though he'd completely fail to meet those ridiculous goals, he'd work hard and surprise her with his achievements. That was the kind of guy Shin was.

"Hold the brush like this," she told him. "First, try to copy this..."


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh, for the gods' sake," Ouhon complained.

"Yeah, I know." Mouten chuckled lightly. Both of them were on the walls of the king's palace, awaiting the reward ceremony. Ouhon had just come back from the last battle of the coalition war, and Mouten had just come back from the dead. The later had talked both Ouhon and Shin into meeting him. After all, they'd made it alive. He felt it was reason enough to celebrate. It certainly was in his case.

Just now, Shin was climbing the stairs to join them, while Ouhon, as usual, was sulking.

"Even a peasant wouldn't dare to dress like that in front of the king. I mean, he has a comfortable salary now. He should be able to bother getting himself more than _one_ set of clothes."

"I'm not sure he's aware of that," Mouten noted.

"Aren't you being all friendly with him? Why don't you get him to buy something decent to wear?"

"Look at the bright side of things," Mouten replied cheerfully.

"There is a bright side to this?"

"He's wearing pants, this time."

Ouhon stared at him, his jaw set.

"You're actually pleased about this, aren't you?"

"I'm rather amused, yes," Mouten admitted.

"He's going to get a better promotion than you. In front of all of those people. In _those_ clothes. Don't you feel humiliated?"

"I don't really care."

Ouhon gritted his teeth in frustration.

"But I didn't overlook the fact that you do," Mouten added with another chuckle.

"Shut up, now."

"Would you be less ashamed that he passed you by, if he was more presentable?"

"Shut up!"

"Maybe _you_ should go shopping with him?"

"I am seriously going to kill you."


	3. Chapter 3

"You mean you knew?" Ouhon said.

"You mean you hadn't noticed?" Mouten retorted. It was clear from the Gaku ka's commander's face that he was doing his very best not to laugh.

The Hi Shin Unit had just joined them at the Qin-Zhao border, so of course, he had immediately forced Ouhon to come and have some wine with him and Shin. It had been a while since all three of them had been together, after all, and he wanted to hear his fellow commanders talk about the conquest of Choyou.

This time, however, Shin hadn't showed up alone. He wanted to introduce them to a new rival, another future great general, or so he claimed. And so, both Ouhon and Mouten had the suprise to see Kyoukai enter Mouten's tent with him, and sit down at his side. Mouten didn't mind: he was always enthusiastic at the idea of a beautiful woman in his tent. He quickly organized another cup for her.

Ouhon, however, hadn't recovered yet.

"A woman?" he added again, completely thunderstruck. He seemed unable to move beyond that simple fact. "Why did you bring a woman to the battlefield?"

At that, Kyoukai raised an eyebrow, but did not comment.

"Dude, I didn't bring her to the battlefield," Shin answered. "She came on her own. Like you and me."

He raised his cup and sipped at it.

"Seriously, you hadn't heard any of the rumors?" Mouten couldn't help but ask.

"I heard rumors," Ouhon retorted, "but I didn't believe them!"

"And you didn't notice anything when she showed up for our meetings at Choyou?" added Shin.

"There were more important things to think about!"

"Wow," Shin smiled. "I mean she was, what, a couple of feet from you?"

"I was looking at the bigger picture!" Ouhon protested.

"You mean you're even dumber than me."

Mouten could no longer help himself and started laughing hysterically. Kyoukai drank her wine, quietly observing the meaningless banter.

"How was I to know," Ouhon added icily. "With some people, you can hardly tell the difference. Look at Mouten."

"I had no idea my charms worked so well on you, Hon," Mouten replied unfazed.

It was Shin's time to laugh so hard he nearly spilt his wine. By now, everyone could see that Ouhon was deeply regretting having left his weapons outside the tent. For a second, he considered using his bare hands to break their necks.

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," he said instead. "You're already so busy flirting with Shin's officers."

"Now, now," Mouten complained. "If you say it like that, people will misunderstand."

"Is there a point to this?" Kyoukai suddenly asked.

The three men, who had forgotten that she was sitting right there, practically jumped at attention.

"Hum... it's fun?" Shin ventured.

"My apologies," Mouten chuckled.

"That conversation was appalling," Ouhon added.

Kyoukai stared at them. There was something unnerving about her gaze. Like she was looking into you and giving you a mark... not a particularly high one. But Shin, at least was used to it. He slapped her in the back. The strength of it was enough to make her lose her grasp on her cup, which landed on the floor. He grabbed it and filled it with more wine before handing it back to her.

"Stop being so damn serious about everything. You said you wanted to be the greatest general under heaven," he told her. "I figured it's time you knew the competition better."

"I see," Kyoukai said.

She sipped at her wine and gave all three of them another blank look.

"I don't think I have much to worry about."


End file.
